![\"Nelson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/nelson-mayor-nick-smith-said-campaigners-should-take-a-bow-f-WLJT7HHCYBFZ7L23ELYS6M5NL4.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCouncillor Lisa Austin has claimed one of her peers is pushing to \u201coust\u201d her from Nelson City Council and that she could be vacated from her seat.<\/p>\n
By Max Frethey for Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n
The first-term councillor recently escaped prosecution by the Auditor-General over her financial interests in a company she co-owns that is sometimes hired by council contractors.<\/p>\n
The Auditor-General eventually said prosecution would not be in the public interest, and the Minister for Local Government said there was no indication she had done anything wrong, but a law expert has posited that she should not have run for election because of her interests.<\/p>\n
But in a statement released on Friday, Austin said councillor Aaron Stallard was \u201cchallenging my right to serve\u201d on the council.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought this matter was over when the Auditor General decided not to prosecute, but councillor Stallard has chosen to relitigate it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been put under pressure to resign, but I have no intention in doing so. I have done nothing wrong, and I will not let down the Nelsonians who voted for me at the last October elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has written to all elected members seeking their support, saying that she had also been advised by the council that it may declare her seat vacant and call a by-election.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel misled as such a decision amounts to a dismissal. I am also told I would be prohibited from re-standing. This is worse than being prosecuted by the [Auditor-General], as at least through that process I would have had an opportunity to defend myself in court,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
Austin maintains that she has done nothing wrong and has been transparent with her business interests, and added that \u201cmistakes\u201d by council staff while she attempted to gain Auditor-General approval for her interests had jeopardised her position.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith insisted there was no ill intentions behind Stallard’s concerns (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
Alongside her statement, she shared an email reply from Mayor Nick Smith to questions from Stallard about Austin\u2019s circumstances that were circulated to councillors.<\/p>\n
Stallard declined to comment, instead referring to a statement from Mayor Nick Smith.<\/p>\n
In his statement, Smith said Stallard had assured him that he was not seeking to oust Austin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe him. Councillor Stallard is responsibly performing his role as a councillor in seeking to understand and mitigate the risk that this issue brings to the council organisation, as we all are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all working together \u2013 staff and councillors \u2013 to get a solution that, if possible, avoids a by-election.\u201d<\/p>\n
A by-election is expected to cost about $200,000.<\/p>\n
Smith added that the matters involved were legally privileged and will be discussed in a confidential session of an extraordinary meeting of the Audit, Risk, and Finance Committee on Thursday June 4.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouncil asks that the confidentiality of this issue be respected until it is resolved. We recognise it is a matter of significant public interest and will make a public statement as soon as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Smith firmly defended Austin when they both publicised her potential prosecution in early May.<\/p>\n
The regular council meeting scheduled for Thursday June 4 has since been postponed.<\/p>\n
In the first iteration of vote counting for the city\u2019s Central Ward in October\u2019s local elections, Austin received 1767 votes, the most out of her ward\u2019s candidates.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Councillor Lisa Austin has claimed one of her peers is pushing to \u201coust\u201d her from Nelson City Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,91,43,135,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-451123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-nelson","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}